LL1 35 Vision Comes True

Kess picked up the concept quickly. She started out by flattening the ripples of sand in a circle a half a metre in diameter, one tiny hill at a time. Luke sat on the slope of a large dune and watched her, instructed her, and occasionally demonstrated. After mastering the art of moving sand, he put his lightsaber on the ground in front of her and had her move that around for a while.

Then he told her to pick it up. After an hour of dropping the thing over and over again, she got to the point of being able to hand it back to him. He held out his hand as the hilt floated into his palm and unintentionally rewarded her with a big, fat smile.

Kess looked, not believing she was successful until she saw it with her own eyes, and shot her fists into the air. "Yes!"

Luke backed up to the dune again and sat, latching his saber back on his belt, "Now. Catch me a mugrat."

She whipped her hair behind her shoulder, eager for more success. The peach collar of her shirt hung lopsided on her shoulders. Kess closed her eyes so her mind could grope under the sand for a mugrat. Luke's gaze fell on the nape of her neck.

"How do you get the sand out of their way?" She asked.

He ripped his eyes off her skin and stared at the ground instead, "Move the sand."

Kess' Force awareness sank into the sand until she found a dozen simple consciousnesses burrowed underneath. She stepped towards the nearest and scooped up the sleeping creature with imaginary hands. The mugrat squirmed out of her grasp in panic. She couldn't blame the poor thing. She'd be terrified too.

"It's okay, pal," she said softly, even though she knew the mugrat couldn't hear her. "I'm not going to hurt you." Somehow, the calming words managed to transmit her soft assurances to the creature and the mugrat relaxed into a nervous patience. The maneuver was complex. She had to concentrate on moving the mugrat, calming the mugrat, and moving the sand out of the way of the mugrat, all at the same time. By the time the animal came through the top layer of sand, she had slipped on calming it, and forgot about putting Force barriers around the fidgety rodent.

As soon as its little beady eyes saw the daylight, it dashed right off of her disc-shaped Force attention. Her eyes went wide when the creature ran and, acting on instinct, Kess ran after it.

Her hands grabbed at the sand where the mugrat had been. It zipped a zigzag path up the firm slope of the two-metre dune, stopping and starting again as if to tease its pursuer. It wisely led her to the crest of the dune and ran straight down the almost vertical cliff on the other side.

Kess saw the two-metre drop and tried to skid to a stop at the crest. Just before her inertia sent her into a tumbling roll down the scoop, she cursed herself for not figuring out the animal's plan sooner. Part of the steep slope toppled with her, sending buckets of red sand onto her head. When she finally stopped rolling, she lay flat on her back and pounded the ground with her fists.

A tall figure appeared at the top of the crest and called down, "That isn't quite what I had in mind!"

Kess burst into laughter, realizing the scene must have looked like slapstick comedy to Luke. The sun hung in the sky behind him, giving his black shirt a golden aura. His hands rested on his hips, one knee bent for balance. She watched his chuckle grow into laughter and her memories took a snapshot of the Jedi Knight and king of the hill.

The crest of the dune gave way under his weight. His laughter came to an abrupt silence and pounds of sand tumbled with him into the scoop. Luke was already laughing again by the time he stopped rolling. He sat adjacent to her, both half-buried in the freshly collapsed sand and leaned his back against the dune slope to chortle hysterically.

Kess just watched him, giggling more that Luke was finally showing signs of humanity than anything else. She sat up to see him but otherwise didn't move. In due time, she would try to catch another mugrat but for now she was perfectly content to just sit there and watch Luke actually laugh.

His laughter died naturally, drifting into a faraway stare. "Biggs and I used to romp around the Dune Sea in buggies when I was a kid. We'd limp home covered in sand from head to toe." He let out a distant chuckle until it faded into deeper memories and continued, "One time, we were barreling through the flat at top speed coming straight for a four-metre scoop. And you couldn't tell by looking at straight on, but the scoop came up to almost ninety degrees like this one."

He leaned forward, looking at her with playful eyes. "I hit the dune running it wide open and shot straight up into the air... and hung there for a full second... and fell backwards. Biggs was behind me, and his buggy had a sun visor, so he couldn't see me in the air. Here he comes, tearing up the sand at full speed, until I plop down right in front of him, upside down. He hit me in the rear quarter panel, sending me spinning like a corkscrew, and he skids off sideways hitting the scoop like a brick wall. Half the crest came down on top of him. Aunt Beru blew a gasket when she saw me."

Kess beamed at the vision of two reckless farm boys in a harmless dune buggy accident. She shined even brighter when it hit her that Luke finally told her a story that had nothing to do with the Force.

Luke smiled at the forgotten memory, but his smile faded into the same old regret that Biggs's died on his starboard flank. He swallowed it away and glanced up to see Kess still giggling. Golden hair shimmered in the sunlight, her cheeks were flushed with laughter, and rose-coral lips peeled away with a smile. The old pain of losing his friend melted away. Biggs would've liked her.

Her voice broke through his thoughts, "How old were you?"

Luke lowered his gaze. "Oh, I don't know. Fifteen, I guess."

Her smile changed as she recognized the mannerisms of a green farm boy. She watched his eyes dart about and find her again. The smile faded into a nervous grin like a teenager who was shy with his company. For a quick moment, she tried to sense the emotion he was emitting, but only found her own bubbling crush.

"Did you ever," he rubbed his lips and diverted his eyes, "ride in dune buggies?"

Kess thought… and decided not to think. Do it before you change your mind. Before logic took over, before he got away and turned back into the Jedi Master, Kess rolled up on her knees, rested her fists in the sand next to his leg, and kissed him.

She moved so quickly he barely had time to gasp before her lips touched his. Without opening her eyes or her mouth, she pressed her lips against his for several long seconds. Luke was holding his breath, motionless with shock. The warm tingle of attraction swelled in her chest and grew to elation when she realized he wasn't pushing her away...

...but he wasn't reaching for her either.

She pulled away and peeled her eyes open to find him sitting there with his eyes still closed, with the rusty sand dune behind him. It was the same sight she saw in her Force vision a week before. His upper body angled forward several degrees as he sat there for two full seconds, completely flabbergasted.

His lips parted to let out the pent up breath and blue eyes looked at her, paralyzed.

"Why did you that?" he breathed.

Kess was still stuck in a suspenseful hope that he'd reach for her. "Because you weren't planning on it."

Luke paused; his eyes closed for a long blink and—

He vigorously shook his head. He shot her a glare and started brushing the sand from his lap. Soon, he gave up and, in a burst of energy, stood to let the sand fall from him instead. "We're done for the day," he snapped quietly.

Kess' heart sank. She climbed to her feet only to find him looking down at her in thick disappointment. She dropped her gaze so she wouldn't have to see. "I'm sorry."

He spoke in a tense voice, "I'm training you to be a Jedi Knight, not court you. I'm sorry if you got the wrong impression, but this is not what I had in mind." He saw her look up with pained eyes. "Either you are going to drop the subject or I'm going to cancel your training altogether." He stared her down long enough for her to realize how serious he was about it, and turn his back to her to walk back to the hotel.

"Luke, I'm sorry!" She pleaded as she followed him.

He walked quickly, watching his destination, his voice growing rough, "That's Master Luke if you can't keep it straight. Or if you can't manage to control yourself, you can just call me Commander." Emotion welled in his own throat. "You need to have the utmost dedication to your training, not crumble to childish whims."

Kess' defenses went up at the insult of his reactions. "You act like decked you!"

He stopped in his tracks and faced her, "It doesn't matter whether you kissed me, or decked me, or stabbed me with my own lightsaber. What matters is that you lost control. No matter what happens or how you feel, you must always maintain control of your own actions. I have beaten this subject into the ground and you still tossed logic aside in a matter of seconds!"

"Loosen up!" She yelled at him and waved her hands in the air. "Sure, you've got to maintain control in combat, even during work, but this is ridiculous! Falling in love, and especially sex, is all about losing control!"

Luke stopped in his tracks and hissed harshly back at her. "My sex life is none of your business."

Kess fought the tears welling up in her eyes and hissed. "It was just a kiss!"

Luke clenched his teeth and pointed back at the dune, "No, Kess. That was a mistake!"

She backed up a step, clenching her teeth, "You're damned right it was." Tears squeezed out of the corners of her eyes and she quickly turned so he wouldn't see them. She rushed down the beach as fast as her legs could carry her, gaining as much distance from the man as possible.

Luke let her go. For a long minute, he stared at the space where she had been standing. He felt her crushed heart and stifled tears all they way out to the street where her Force print faded into the masses on the sidewalk. He fell back into the slope of the dune behind him and rested his elbows on his bent knees. He stared out at the ocean, feeling his throat clench, dug his fingers into his bangs, and closed his eyes with a quick sigh.

Then he sighed again. "Now what do I do, Ben?"

He shook his head, knowing Obi-Wan wasn't going to show on command. Luke swallowed hard, closed his eyes, and, thoughtfully, licked his lips.